Your assertion only works in a completely fair society. So maybe it would work in Sparta where they everyone grew up in a barracks. Here in the real world it's not 'fair' because the playing field isn't level. That's why the best way to guess the income of a child growing up is to look at the income his parents had.
Any successful business man will tell you that there is such a thing as a customer you don't want. Ones that tie up your employees and resources are bad. It's only when you're selling commodities with a fixed price and a high turnover rate (Milk, eggs, oil, beer) that you can take all comers.
At the risk of being modded troll, let me say that that's the trouble with Capitalism. The real world doesn't fit into it's principles and ideas. Health care is too complex and purchased too rarely to make Capitalism a good fit for acquiring it. The classic example is that it's tough to comparison shop on a heart transplant....
people don't have health care unless they can afford health insurance. Health Care becomes a luxury that you only get if you earn it.
A sizable number of Americans think this way already, and an equally sizable think that if we try paying for health care for everyone then there won't be enough for them. All you need to do is convince 51% of Americans of this (because we're 2 party, not a parliament) and Option 3 takes effect.
That's sorta why we ended up with the Affordable Care Act. It was the closest we could get to universal health care with two big blocks of the country convinced that Universal Health Care is impossible. It's odd really, since these same people are convinced we're both the greatest people on earth ("American Exceptionalism") and completely incapable to taking care of one another....
the IRS has been cracking down on companies that hire contractors for what are really full time positions. Contractors pay a lot less in taxes (well, the companies do, the contractor gets screwed but over all it's less tax revenue) and generally cost local gov'ts more.
The people winning are the corporations that get to drive down labor costs while using the United States' expansive military to make the world safe for their bank accounts.
sinking millions into teaching every kid to code is a waste. Better to focus on math, which is the hard part of programming. Stringing together for loops isn't rocket science. That said, it does require a certain amount of skill, and I'm sure companies are tired of paying for that skill. This new push to get everyone coding is really just a bunch of rich $@$#s trying to get cheaper programmers on the public dime:(.
is assuming the politicians are the ruling class. Make no mistake, the ultra-rich are the rulers. The folks in the House/Senate are, like you said, water carriers. But the actual, practical effect is that the Koch bros. and their ilk call the shots. So from a practical standpoint we have a Kleptocracy.
The middle class are still losing. We all are. I've always hated this logic: Things are continuously getting worse, but since they could get even worser it's all OK. It doesn't change the fact that the middle class is going away...
Also, the point of the upper class Kleptocracy is to take everything. If they have everything,it doesn't really matter what happens. This is why the economy keeps getting worse for Labor but the stock market keeps hitting record highs.
but the problem is it's not the right answer. It's not about brick and motar, it's about there being only 1 company you buy everything from. That's Amazon's long term goal, and they're not shy about pointing it out. It's why they have so many investors even though their profit margin is so bad. The investors are expecting Amazon to drive the competition out, jack up the prices (and their profits) and then there'll be nothing anyone can do about it.
So when you say they should go out of business, that's only true if you completely ignore what the people of France (and people in general) desire and what's in their best interests. That's fine if you're the sort who believes in dog eat dog, winner take all capitalism. For the rest of us we support the regional players anyway.
To put it in terms that fit your world view: it's kinda like what Chairman Mao did with crops: He told everyone to double plant. A bad idea that sounds good on paper, has good gut feeling and 'truthiness'. Instead of double the food you had famine. It's the same thing with Amazon. It sounds good on paper to let the weaker players die out. And on a gut level it seems like the right thing to do. But it blows up in our faces. Instead of a cornucopia of cheap goods you'll be struggling to come up with the money for basic necessities.
It took me a while to learn what that meant. Basically, be aware of situations where you could be in an accident and get out of them as soon as you can. Also,try to make it a rule that if there's more than 2 things that could go wrong with a driving maneuver I don't do it:).
It's a hard thing to teach though. When I did driver's Ed as a kid they tried to hammer it into us so hard it just came off as a joke ("Blood on the Highway!").
For me, I'm more than a little neurotic, so it came natural:), but I struggle with how to get the point across to my kid that she should periodically be taking stock of her situation.
Self driving cars do all that without the messiness of trying to teach them:)
if you're company stops growing, even for just a bit, the investors eat you alive. There's even a name for it: Bained, after former Presidential Candidate Mitt Rhomney's old company made the practice well known.
Nintendo is a Japanese company, so they might not be vulnerable to it though. But for us here in America we're wondering if they'll get cut to pieces by their investors.
I buy them for stability. I can't be the only one that's had, and continues to have, trouble with ATI's hardware. Maybe it's different in the $200+ range, but I buy in the $90-$130 range... I can't find it now but my bro was telling me that one of the gaming PC manufacturers dropped ATI because of the support calls:(.
I miss the color quality from my 1650, but I haven't had any luck with their hardware since then...
It's what we're all about. These sorts of things are used to make employees work harder and harder. As they do productivity goes up, and you need fewer employees. Fire some of them, and then make the survivors work harder. Lather, rinse repeat. It's not called a race to the bottom for nothing, you know.
or put another way, what'll happen when we have half a trillion dollars less economic activity? Since our entire civilization is based around getting people to trade among themselves. I just don't see all these productivity gains are ever going to make it down to my level...
We all agree we want these things, so why aren't we working harder to make them available? When we wanted to go to the moon, we did. So here we are and we want free Internet. Seriously, compared to the moon that's nothing. And entire generation of scientists said FU to gravity and we can't even transfer a bit of data without charging an arm and a leg for it like it's the most precious thing in the universe? When did we start giving up so easily? Maybe it was when somebody realized there was money to be made in scarcity...
nothing about if it was the right thing to do, just: "If you don't do it soon people will won't let you do it because they'll expect unlimited Internet". No discussion of the technical need. It's pretty clear there is none, and this is just a money grab.
Actually it does. It's not stupid. It's the only way to prevent out of control wealth inequality that has ever worked in the past (short of plagues). If you're working from the assumption that 1% of the populace having 90% of the stuff is bad then it's not stupid, heck it's downright brilliant.
Um, Microsoft used borderline slave labor and a complete disregard for the environment to build the Surface pro. And not the kind of disregard that we get to ignore. It's the kind that makes 'Cancer Villages' (google it)
And the reason your gov't is making an agency to do a contract to get something done isn't inefficiency, it's socialism. Seriously. It's make work projects to try and spread some money around because otherwise the natural tendency if for money to be hoarded at the top by a few wealthy oligarchs (we call 'em the 1% these days).
The US Postal Service has God like efficiency. Just ask Netflix. Or just mail a letter and watch it travel across the breath of the United States in less than a week for 33 1/3 cents. The Space programs were (and are) amazing, and did things private industry couldn't hope to accomplish and that we're still reaping the benefits from today. The Gov't can be plenty efficient when it wants to be. It can also be very inefficient when it wants to. There are times when that's a good thing.
In the same thread where I can find 1000 people going on about how efficient capitalism is I can find another (sometimes the same) 1000 people complaining all the dumb things their companies do. Well, which one is it? It doesn't work both ways people. Could it be that people are people, no matter what banner they're organized under?
There is a sizable portion of population that thinks Obamacare was a bad idea because it doesn't go far enough, e.g. Socialists in favor of single payer. Also, and this is not a joke, several polls show that the Affordable Care Act is much more popular that Obamacare.
Slashdot Mirror
The point is a history of the right wing to hamstring or eliminate things they don't like. It's part of an overall strategy.
Here.. Also Here. You're welcome.
Your assertion only works in a completely fair society. So maybe it would work in Sparta where they everyone grew up in a barracks. Here in the real world it's not 'fair' because the playing field isn't level. That's why the best way to guess the income of a child growing up is to look at the income his parents had.
Because it's gonna sell for $300 instead of $600.
Any successful business man will tell you that there is such a thing as a customer you don't want. Ones that tie up your employees and resources are bad. It's only when you're selling commodities with a fixed price and a high turnover rate (Milk, eggs, oil, beer) that you can take all comers.
At the risk of being modded troll, let me say that that's the trouble with Capitalism. The real world doesn't fit into it's principles and ideas. Health care is too complex and purchased too rarely to make Capitalism a good fit for acquiring it. The classic example is that it's tough to comparison shop on a heart transplant....
people don't have health care unless they can afford health insurance. Health Care becomes a luxury that you only get if you earn it.
A sizable number of Americans think this way already, and an equally sizable think that if we try paying for health care for everyone then there won't be enough for them. All you need to do is convince 51% of Americans of this (because we're 2 party, not a parliament) and Option 3 takes effect.
That's sorta why we ended up with the Affordable Care Act. It was the closest we could get to universal health care with two big blocks of the country convinced that Universal Health Care is impossible. It's odd really, since these same people are convinced we're both the greatest people on earth ("American Exceptionalism") and completely incapable to taking care of one another....
the IRS has been cracking down on companies that hire contractors for what are really full time positions. Contractors pay a lot less in taxes (well, the companies do, the contractor gets screwed but over all it's less tax revenue) and generally cost local gov'ts more.
The people winning are the corporations that get to drive down labor costs while using the United States' expansive military to make the world safe for their bank accounts.
sinking millions into teaching every kid to code is a waste. Better to focus on math, which is the hard part of programming. Stringing together for loops isn't rocket science. That said, it does require a certain amount of skill, and I'm sure companies are tired of paying for that skill. This new push to get everyone coding is really just a bunch of rich $@$#s trying to get cheaper programmers on the public dime :(.
is assuming the politicians are the ruling class. Make no mistake, the ultra-rich are the rulers. The folks in the House/Senate are, like you said, water carriers. But the actual, practical effect is that the Koch bros. and their ilk call the shots. So from a practical standpoint we have a Kleptocracy.
,it doesn't really matter what happens. This is why the economy keeps getting worse for Labor but the stock market keeps hitting record highs.
The middle class are still losing. We all are. I've always hated this logic: Things are continuously getting worse, but since they could get even worser it's all OK. It doesn't change the fact that the middle class is going away...
Also, the point of the upper class Kleptocracy is to take everything. If they have everything
but the problem is it's not the right answer. It's not about brick and motar, it's about there being only 1 company you buy everything from. That's Amazon's long term goal, and they're not shy about pointing it out. It's why they have so many investors even though their profit margin is so bad. The investors are expecting Amazon to drive the competition out, jack up the prices (and their profits) and then there'll be nothing anyone can do about it.
So when you say they should go out of business, that's only true if you completely ignore what the people of France (and people in general) desire and what's in their best interests. That's fine if you're the sort who believes in dog eat dog, winner take all capitalism. For the rest of us we support the regional players anyway.
To put it in terms that fit your world view: it's kinda like what Chairman Mao did with crops: He told everyone to double plant. A bad idea that sounds good on paper, has good gut feeling and 'truthiness'. Instead of double the food you had famine. It's the same thing with Amazon. It sounds good on paper to let the weaker players die out. And on a gut level it seems like the right thing to do. But it blows up in our faces. Instead of a cornucopia of cheap goods you'll be struggling to come up with the money for basic necessities.
Right, because nothing bad has ever happened when regional players are put out of business. Ever.
It took me a while to learn what that meant. Basically, be aware of situations where you could be in an accident and get out of them as soon as you can. Also,try to make it a rule that if there's more than 2 things that could go wrong with a driving maneuver I don't do it :).
:), but I struggle with how to get the point across to my kid that she should periodically be taking stock of her situation.
:)
It's a hard thing to teach though. When I did driver's Ed as a kid they tried to hammer it into us so hard it just came off as a joke ("Blood on the Highway!"). For me, I'm more than a little neurotic, so it came natural
Self driving cars do all that without the messiness of trying to teach them
if you're company stops growing, even for just a bit, the investors eat you alive. There's even a name for it: Bained, after former Presidential Candidate Mitt Rhomney's old company made the practice well known.
Nintendo is a Japanese company, so they might not be vulnerable to it though. But for us here in America we're wondering if they'll get cut to pieces by their investors.
You're basically stuck buying from Gigabyte or Asus if you buy Nvidia. Everyone else makes junk.
I buy them for stability. I can't be the only one that's had, and continues to have, trouble with ATI's hardware. Maybe it's different in the $200+ range, but I buy in the $90-$130 range... I can't find it now but my bro was telling me that one of the gaming PC manufacturers dropped ATI because of the support calls :(.
I miss the color quality from my 1650, but I haven't had any luck with their hardware since then...
It's what we're all about. These sorts of things are used to make employees work harder and harder. As they do productivity goes up, and you need fewer employees. Fire some of them, and then make the survivors work harder. Lather, rinse repeat. It's not called a race to the bottom for nothing, you know.
or put another way, what'll happen when we have half a trillion dollars less economic activity? Since our entire civilization is based around getting people to trade among themselves. I just don't see all these productivity gains are ever going to make it down to my level...
I pick gov't. At least I get to vote. I suppose if I bought stock I get to vote, but I'm not a millionaire so my vote counts for less.
We all agree we want these things, so why aren't we working harder to make them available? When we wanted to go to the moon, we did. So here we are and we want free Internet. Seriously, compared to the moon that's nothing. And entire generation of scientists said FU to gravity and we can't even transfer a bit of data without charging an arm and a leg for it like it's the most precious thing in the universe? When did we start giving up so easily? Maybe it was when somebody realized there was money to be made in scarcity...
nothing about if it was the right thing to do, just: "If you don't do it soon people will won't let you do it because they'll expect unlimited Internet". No discussion of the technical need. It's pretty clear there is none, and this is just a money grab.
Actually it does. It's not stupid. It's the only way to prevent out of control wealth inequality that has ever worked in the past (short of plagues). If you're working from the assumption that 1% of the populace having 90% of the stuff is bad then it's not stupid, heck it's downright brilliant.
Um, Microsoft used borderline slave labor and a complete disregard for the environment to build the Surface pro. And not the kind of disregard that we get to ignore. It's the kind that makes 'Cancer Villages' (google it)
And the reason your gov't is making an agency to do a contract to get something done isn't inefficiency, it's socialism. Seriously. It's make work projects to try and spread some money around because otherwise the natural tendency if for money to be hoarded at the top by a few wealthy oligarchs (we call 'em the 1% these days).
The US Postal Service has God like efficiency. Just ask Netflix. Or just mail a letter and watch it travel across the breath of the United States in less than a week for 33 1/3 cents. The Space programs were (and are) amazing, and did things private industry couldn't hope to accomplish and that we're still reaping the benefits from today. The Gov't can be plenty efficient when it wants to be. It can also be very inefficient when it wants to. There are times when that's a good thing.
In the same thread where I can find 1000 people going on about how efficient capitalism is I can find another (sometimes the same) 1000 people complaining all the dumb things their companies do. Well, which one is it? It doesn't work both ways people. Could it be that people are people, no matter what banner they're organized under?
I don't worry about my kids beheading people. I do worry about my kids getting knocked up and/or knocking someone else up.
There is a sizable portion of population that thinks Obamacare was a bad idea because it doesn't go far enough, e.g. Socialists in favor of single payer. Also, and this is not a joke, several polls show that the Affordable Care Act is much more popular that Obamacare.